The invention concerns a device for recording and/or reproducing information on a magnetic tape medium, for example an individual television image frame, by means of a cylinder around which the tape is wound, and with which is associated at least one rotatably arranged recording and/or reproducing head, for example a video head.
In known devices of this type, the cylinder around which the magnetic tape is guided is stationary, and the video head is carried on a rotary disc and projects through a gap in the cylinder so as to establish a pressure engagement with the magnetic tape. During reproducing operation, the tape is drawn over the cylinder, and the video head disc is rotated at a speed suitable to the transducing of a recorded television signal, for example. If an individual recorded frame is to be reproduced, the tape is stopped in order that the same track on the tape may be repeatedly scanned by the video head. Since the video head is firmly pressed against the tape, reproduction of an individual recorded image by means of repeated scanning of a record track is only possible during a comparatively short period of time if the tape is not be damaged.
It is also prior art to employ other types of record media such as magnetic disc configurations for the purpose of storage and reproduction of an individual recorded image, for example by the repeated sequential scanning of recorded interlaced fields of a conventional television frame signal. Here, an individual image reproduction by means of repeated successive scanning of the same track over a long period of time is, indeed, possible; however, these devices are very complicated and expensive, and require a relatively expensive record medium in comparison to ordinary magnetic video tape.